The ISN Officers should like to invite the membership to make suggestions concerning the location of the Biennial Meeting of the ISN for the year 2009. The Biennial International Meetings of ISN have been held in the places shown in Table 1. The evaluation of the lists provides an overview on the number of times the Meeting has been held in the various countries (Table 2) or in the various regions or continents (Table 3). In accordance with a decision taken in the Council Meeting in Chicago in 2000, the biennial meetings should be organized in collaboration with ASN/APSN/ESN on a rotational basis. Since the meetings in 2005 and 2007 are organized jointly with the ESN and ASN, respectively, the meeting in 2009 will be organized jointly with the APSN and therefore will have to take place in the Asia/Pacific region (Asia, Australia).

Proposals of meeting sites within this geographical area should be accompanied by the following information:

1. Name and location of the proposed hotel/institution/congress center meeting site.
2. Possible dates for the meeting that normally shall be in the summer.
3. The anticipated costs for accommodations in the host hotel and/or nearby hotels.
4. The cost and location of lower cost accommodations for students and postdoctoral fellows, e.g. at university ormitories.
5. The possibility of financial supports (or even better the agreement for support) from the city, local public organizations, and local companies.
6. A rough estimate of the whole budget and anticipated registration fees (member, non-member and student/emeritus) and what the fees would include.
7. The transportation facilities to and in the host city; proximity of airports, train stations, bus terminals, driving distances from the major cities, distance from hotels to the meeting site (walking distance or transportation required?)
8. The expected weather conditions during the proposed time of the meeting.
9. The local cultural points of interest in the host city.
10. If proposal will be approved of, the proposing persons are supposed to form a Local Committee.

Please send your proposals to the ISN Secretary by March 15, 2005:
Dr. Agustina García, Instituto de Biotecnología y Biomedicina V. Villar Palasí, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallés), Spain
Phone: + 34 935812802, Fax: + 34 935812011, Email: agustina.garcia@uab.es

Table 1. Locations of the Biennial International Meetings of ISN:

Table 2. Distribution of Biennial ISN Meetings by countries till 2007:

Table 3. Distribution of Biennial ISN Meetings by continents or regions till 2007: